I... I like it... lots I have a wanting for her to be a bit more 'robotic' (maybe like SC2's Adjutant system?) but I'll take the audio feedback over the nothingness that is right now.. very cool

In other news there's a lot of variance I'm seeing with PUG players regarding attitude. In Closed Beta it seemed to not peak so high or low either way, but once Open Beta started there are some real raging arses out there, and then conversely folks who are super grateful that I say 'gl hf gg' at the start and explain what everyone means by 'spotting targets with r'. Back to back matches I've seen folks talk about how Beta is now a cesspool of the crap of humanity and the very next match the game is full of a great community and both sides congratulate each other at the end.

I'm diggin' being fire support in my Wang and other Cent, still working on a non-Wang build I'm really happy with.

I don't understand how they're going to keep people paying for things with this model.

In World of Tanks, they have a hierarchy for tanks - you can't get the super-duper mammoth tanks without first grinding out several tanks of smaller size first. So even though you might not want to pay money for more tank slots, you still want to pay for premium time so that you can unlock those big tanks faster through experience unlocks.

Here, there doesn't seem to be any incentive for really buying premium time. Within a reasonable period of time I can grind out enough CBills to buy an Atlas, and there's nothing preventing me from going for that first. I don't have a founder's mech, a Wang, or a premium account, and I've already got one of the 3 Catapults I want to play with. Aside from having extra garage slots, I don't really see anything here I'd want to pay money for.

How is this going to be a profitable business model for them? Am I missing something?

Maybe after beta ends they'll have figured this out and changed it. I am really just surprised they don't have a bigger grind in place right now.

Here, there doesn't seem to be any incentive for really buying premium time. Within a reasonable period of time I can grind out enough CBills to buy an Atlas, and there's nothing preventing me from going for that first. I don't have a founder's mech, a Wang, or a premium account, and I've already got one of the 3 Catapults I want to play with. Aside from having extra garage slots, I don't really see anything here I'd want to pay money for.

How is this going to be a profitable business model for them? Am I missing something?

They're banking a lot on lateral grinding for variety rather than vertical grinding, which is pretty player-friendly of them but probably psychologically a lot less effective at keeping people playing and paying.

The vertical grind is pretty much just skill-ing up, which they've forced some lateral grind in to by making you buy three variants to advance to higher tier skills for, and accruing the credit to get fancy stuff like endo steel and modules on your mechs. Both take a pretty significant time investment, but pretty short compared to your average MMO or F2P game's extremely long treadmill. At some point they'll be adding cosmetic stuff, too.

It's a lot like LoL, really. There's an initial grind where you'll want to spend money to vertically climb, but after you climb that the pressure almost vanishes. After that, they're counting on you buying different heroes(/mech) and skins to keep going. Given how mechs are modular, and also less distinctive than LoL heroes, not sure how well that'll work.

Seems pretty likely we'll see extra, expensive shinies and clan tech at some point, too, to push out the vertical grind for each mech you use.

I don't understand how they're going to keep people paying for things with this model.

Part of it is learning to play the roles that the mechs are intended for. Just running up enough cbills to buy and keep an Atlas would only give you the biggest damage soaker on the map, but it also is slow and easy enough into it's blind spot around the feet. There is also the evolution of the mechs in the class for example the promised Highlander which is potentially a different play style entirely due to being speedy and having jump jets. Even if you buy premium occasionally to just grind out a new mech, variant, or class you are successfully playing into their model.

Even in WoT I have heard many times that just getting to the biggest tanks also means you are hurting your wallets due to profitability. I would think the assaults in this Game will eventually lead down that path and probably should. The numbers of assaults that we are seeing in MWO break with my impression of Battletech's portrayal of them since they were more like unique pieces and seeing an Atlas on a battlefield was a rare privilege.

There is a lot more than to buy than just mechs. Advanced components can cost more than the mech itself. World of Tanks is the same way. I could not afford camo on every artillery I used.

I think the game would not work with vertical grinding. Every mech weight has a role. Its more you buy into a mech type you like, experiment with different loadouts, get pilot skills (tank crew). One thing I did not like about WoT was it took forever as a free account to get crew experience. (Last i Played I was like T5 or 6, got 100% crew on my arty but they barely have exp on learning their one skill). Not sure how long it takes to max out a mech type skills.

They will be adding more mechs. One downside to Open Beta is the limit of mech types out right now.

The XP grind for Pilot and Mech upgrades Since last Monday I I've worked on 3 Hunchback variants and have finally unlocked Elite. I purchased 1 Hunchie with MC and the third I bought with C-Bills I don't have enough GXP for Pilot upgrades but that will keep me playing.

I know I'll want to level up a heavy mech in the future too. The time and money sinks are pretty well established .

Just grabbed this when the Open Beta went live. This game is really awesome. It feels like playing Counterstrike in slow-motion, with tanks, which isn't a bad thing.

Anyone have some interesting builds to share? I've been enjoying the Hunchback 4G with the huge AC/20. When I can land skill shots with it I can take out or disable small mechs in a couple hits. I'm thinking about replacing teh regular medium lasers with pulse, just because I think they're fun to use.

Also, I think I've encountered one video-related performance bug. On Forest Colony my framerate will drop from 60 FPS in the forest to a slideshow when I'm near the water. It doesn't happen every time I play, just once in awhile. Some people told me they've experienced this on River City too, but I haven't. It's annoying when it happens though.

They're banking a lot on lateral grinding for variety rather than vertical grinding, which is pretty player-friendly of them but probably psychologically a lot less effective at keeping people playing and paying.

The vertical grind is pretty much just skill-ing up, which they've forced some lateral grind in to by making you buy three variants to advance to higher tier skills for, and accruing the credit to get fancy stuff like endo steel and modules on your mechs. Both take a pretty significant time investment, but pretty short compared to your average MMO or F2P game's extremely long treadmill. At some point they'll be adding cosmetic stuff, too.

It's a lot like LoL, really. There's an initial grind where you'll want to spend money to vertically climb, but after you climb that the pressure almost vanishes. After that, they're counting on you buying different heroes(/mech) and skins to keep going. Given how mechs are modular, and also less distinctive than LoL heroes, not sure how well that'll work.

Seems pretty likely we'll see extra, expensive shinies and clan tech at some point, too, to push out the vertical grind for each mech you use.

Yeah pretty much this I think. They're already talking about having the custom camo shop (a few are free but for any truly custom mixes you have to pay MC) and adding more hero mechs later, and I can easily see them saying that some Clan models are 'free' (i.e. just cost CBills) but a lot will be purchased on "the black market" so they'll cost in MCs instead of just CBills. Nothing will be required but I think they're planning on having enough niceties that you'll spend a dollar here, two bucks there. Oh and to convert your buckets of Mech XP into GXP later since grinding out GXP for good modules later

I never got into F2P games too much, I skipped WoT, but this is something that has just the right hook for me, I purchased a Founders package and the Wang and have no regrets, and scarily I'm looking forward to see what else they're going to release, if there's anything that makes me -want- to blow cash on it like the Wang; I highly disliked the Centurion during Closed Beta, the entire medium line just wasn't for me me, but I really liked the Yen-Lo and bought it the day it was released . If they add more things that appeal to me like that then I can see, for myself, supporting this game for a while that way.

Remember that most F2P games have a pretty lopsided ratio of those who pay to those who don't. I'm sure they are expecting at least 70% of their player base to never drop a dime and hopefully have planned around that to make sure the other 30% will provide enough profits.

I don't understand how they're going to keep people paying for things with this model.

In World of Tanks, they have a hierarchy for tanks - you can't get the super-duper mammoth tanks without first grinding out several tanks of smaller size first. So even though you might not want to pay money for more tank slots, you still want to pay for premium time so that you can unlock those big tanks faster through experience unlocks.

Here, there doesn't seem to be any incentive for really buying premium time. Within a reasonable period of time I can grind out enough CBills to buy an Atlas, and there's nothing preventing me from going for that first. I don't have a founder's mech, a Wang, or a premium account, and I've already got one of the 3 Catapults I want to play with. Aside from having extra garage slots, I don't really see anything here I'd want to pay money for.

How is this going to be a profitable business model for them? Am I missing something?

Maybe after beta ends they'll have figured this out and changed it. I am really just surprised they don't have a bigger grind in place right now.

Because contrary to WoT, my Jenner has a potential to pick apart a lone assault mech. So even if you bought an assault, that doesn't guarantee your supremacy on the battlefield. In WoT, there no way in hell my type X light can even dent a type X heavy.

Seems pretty likely we'll see extra, expensive shinies and clan tech at some point, too, to push out the vertical grind for each mech you use.

Hopefully we'll see a map of the Inner Sphere, and maybe there's some use for $$$'s to get you around the IS fast. Otherwise it's just an endless sim and it would be difficult to get people to pay. Not like you need to have one of every weight class, or that weapons go away when they're damaged.

There are 20-30'ish modules already listed in the xml files. The mods in the game currently range from 5,000 to 15,000 GXP. With 325'ish matches (>4:1 w:l) I still need another 2,000 GXP to unlock the cap mod. To convert leftover XP to GXP costs 1MC per 25GXP. See where I'm going with this?

Right now I'm looking at grinding 370-400 games, with premium, to unlock the cap module.Buying the $15 MC pack means a 15,000 GXP module will run you $3 to skip that grind.$15 gets you a month of premium with almost enough left over to convert enough GXP for the cap module.

$2.85 buys all the Basics for a mech and another $4.30 gets you the Elites. Skipping the grind on a terrible variant might be worth the 7'ish bucks.

Because contrary to WoT, my Jenner has a potential to pick apart a lone assault mech. So even if you bought an assault, that doesn't guarantee your supremacy on the battlefield. In WoT, there no way in hell my type X light can even dent a type X heavy.

This. Lights can be a downright terror.

What annoys me are the Jenners with 6 small lasers. Somehow they just don't die, even in my 7MPL Awesome. Hit them dead to rights they still keep coming. I can take down Atlases, Awesomes and just about everything else, but even a direct hit to some of those lights, just doesn't do it. I think there is still some mess in the hit detection with fast moving mechs.

Because contrary to WoT, my Jenner has a potential to pick apart a lone assault mech. So even if you bought an assault, that doesn't guarantee your supremacy on the battlefield. In WoT, there no way in hell my type X light can even dent a type X heavy.

This. Lights can be a downright terror.

What annoys me are the Jenners with 6 small lasers. Somehow they just don't die, even in my 7MPL Awesome. Hit them dead to rights they still keep coming. I can take down Atlases, Awesomes and just about everything else, but even a direct hit to some of those lights, just doesn't do it. I think there is still some mess in the hit detection with fast moving mechs.

Because contrary to WoT, my Jenner has a potential to pick apart a lone assault mech. So even if you bought an assault, that doesn't guarantee your supremacy on the battlefield. In WoT, there no way in hell my type X light can even dent a type X heavy.

Because contrary to WoT, my Jenner has a potential to pick apart a lone assault mech. So even if you bought an assault, that doesn't guarantee your supremacy on the battlefield. In WoT, there no way in hell my type X light can even dent a type X heavy.

Because contrary to WoT, my Jenner has a potential to pick apart a lone assault mech. So even if you bought an assault, that doesn't guarantee your supremacy on the battlefield. In WoT, there no way in hell my type X light can even dent a type X heavy.

This. Lights can be a downright terror.

Until we can kick them around like footballs again.

For serious. The lack of knockdown really messed things up.

I love my jenner, and I still hate the lack of knockdown. People are building really bad piloting habits.

I at least take pleasure in knowing that when it returns, all these light mechs that aren't used to falling over from the assault mech's pinky toe will cry. They will cry...

Because contrary to WoT, my Jenner has a potential to pick apart a lone assault mech. So even if you bought an assault, that doesn't guarantee your supremacy on the battlefield. In WoT, there no way in hell my type X light can even dent a type X heavy.

This. Lights can be a downright terror.

What annoys me are the Jenners with 6 small lasers. Somehow they just don't die, even in my 7MPL Awesome. Hit them dead to rights they still keep coming. I can take down Atlases, Awesomes and just about everything else, but even a direct hit to some of those lights, just doesn't do it. I think there is still some mess in the hit detection with fast moving mechs.

The issue seems to be the actual hitbox for the lights. It may get fixed with today's patch. Apparently, if you shoot just ahead of the light, you'll score the hit properly.

No clue why anyone would say anything bad about the Commando, its a great little mech. Toss in a 190XL engine, 2MPL's and ferro/endo (or or the other) and you have a very decent scout mech that can hold its own most of the time.

Except against Streaks. Ouch.

Alex, I use my Logitech G290 system with MWO, and it works great. I use the rudder pedals for torso twists, and once you get used to it, it works great.

Commandos are decent mechs, but they'd be much better if the matchmaking was tonnage-based instead of class-based. They just can't pack on that much armor, so they are very vulnerable to other light mechs who are fast(er) and not total noob pilots.